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A crucial area that I expect to feature in the forthcoming September 2021 Advanced Tax exam is Business Asset Disposal Relief (BAD relief) This is simply the new revised entrepreneur’s relief. It is available on the sale of a sole trader’s business assets (usually...

An area likely to feature in the Advanced Tax September 2021 exam is the inheritance tax exemptions. There are only 3 exemptions that are available for both lifetime transfers and the death estate The first and most important is the spouse exemption. For this to apply...

One topic which has been examined consistently in the Advanced Tax exam is CYB Closing year rules. These rules apply to a sole trader that pays income tax, Class 2 NIC and Class 4 NIC on the self-employed profits. The first step is to look at the date of cessation and...

Tax incentives such as the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) are important when giving advice to wealthy clients prepared to invest in small unquoted companies. This features regularly in Advanced Tax and BPT. EIS companies should have assets of less than £15M before...

Termination payments paid to employees as compensation for loss of employment are a popular area in the 20-mark Advanced Tax questions.The most important point to remember is that the £30,000 exemption is only available if the payment is non-contractual (ex-gratia)...

A popular area in the Advanced Tax group questions is the degrouping charge. (DGC). When a building is transferred between companies in the same 75% CGT group, the transfer takes place at nil gain/nil loss. If the company that now owns the building leaves the CGT...

It is somewhat surprising that Personal Service Companies (PSC) have not featured recently in the Advanced Tax exam and this topic is certainly due to come up in September 2021. Individuals were setting up PSCs to invoice their employer to receive their income gross...

Rollover relief is a popular topic in the Advanced Tax exam and tends to feature mostly in questions on companies. The gain on the old building is given such as £50,000 and the sale proceeds as well £200,000. If £190,000 is...

The Principal Private Residence exemption is a popular area in the tax exams, and it makes the taxpayer’s main residence including half a hectare of land tax-free from capital gains tax as long as it is occupied by the taxpayer during the period of ownership. The...

The recent Advanced Tax exams indicate that the examining panel is focusing more on small family companies as opposed to large groups. The vast majority of UK companies are close companies and controlled by a few individuals or a single-family. It was amazingly easy...